Delivery

FedEx MD-11 and Cessna Caravan in Phoenix

Delivery trucks are a common occurrence on our street. Seems like you can't be outside for more than a few minutes before either a UPS or FedEx or DHL delivery van shows up. This got me to thinking that these guys might be able to save some money if they pooled their talents, but I suppose that would take some of the edge off of the competition that makes their service so popular. It would also add another layer of bureaucracy and that's never a good thing. So the current arrangement will continue as long as the deliveries don't get so frequent that they start getting in each other's way. I can just imagine things getting so congested that delivery men start pushing and shoving and then we get tempers flying and the next thing you know we've got a small scale riot in suburbia.

Posthip Scott sent me this pleasant little story from The New York Times about how everything got delivered back in the good old days. I remember milk, newspapers and oil were all delivered to our house when I was a kid. Many houses still use oil, and it's still delivered by truck.

Why did things change? Because more people got cars? Towns got bigger? Everyone wants cheaper prices? Or maybe people just like their new cars so much they would use any old excuse to go for a drive. Crazy.

You can still get the newspaper delivered if you are willing to shell out the money. The local paper would cost something like $40 a month to get it delivered everyday and I'm too cheap to pay that much. At the last rate increase I changed to Sunday only, or at least I tried. Seems you can't get Sunday only service, the best you can do is Sunday and Wednesday, which costs something like $20 a month.

I still like to have a morning paper to read with my breakfast. That will continue until we remodel our kitchen so that every seat at the kitchen table has it's own HD display screen. I haven't come up with an arrangement that would allow you to have an unobstructed table for food (unobstructed so it is easy to clean), and a bunch of HD displays that you don't have to carry around with you. Yes, I know, everyone has a smart phone these days, well, everyone but me. I refuse to use a tiny screen. I spent my entire life wanting a bigger display and I am not about to start using a tiny screen. That's just bullshit.

Newspapers are fairly low resolution, like 100 pixels per inch, but when the paper is better than two feet square, that adds up to some serious display power. Holding up a full sheet lets you scan the whole thing quickly. Folding it up lets you concentrate on what you want to read without obscuring your breakfast, and when you are done you can throw it away. I'm sorry, smart phones are just fancy gee-gaws, more trouble and expense than they are worth.

Yesterday while I am working on my truck a woman drives up, gets out of her car and carries a package up to the house. She's delivering for Amazon using her own car. The package? Instant coffee. I'll be durned.